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Friday, February 15, 2013

World famous ketchup company purchased by Berkshire Hathaway and 3G Capital and will concentrate on emerging markets

TOBY TALBOT / AP

H.J. Heinz Co. says it agreed to be acquired by an investment consortium including billionaire investor Warren Buffett in a deal valued at $23 billion. (AP Photo/Toby Talbot, File)

By:Reuters,Published on Thu Feb 14 2013

Including debt assumption, Heinz valued the transaction, which it called the largest in its industry’s history, at $28 billion. Berkshire and 3G will pay $72.50 per share, a 19 per cent premium to the stock’s previous all-time high.

Heinz shares actually rose slightly above the offer price, although Buffett cautioned he had no intention of raising his bid.

Analysts said the deal could be the first step in a broader wave of mergers for the food and beverage industry.

“Maybe for the consumer staples group in general this may start some talk about consolidation. Even corporate entities are flush with cash, interest rates are low, it would seemingly make sense,” Edward Jones analyst Jack Russo said.

Companies like General Mills and Campbell Soup - itself long seen as a potential Heinz merge partner - rose on the news.

The surprise purchase satisfies, at least in part, Buffett’s hunt for growth through acquisition. He was frustrated in 2012 by the collapse of at least two deals in excess of $20 billion and said he might have to do a $30 billion deal this year to help fuel Berkshire’s growth engine.

In this case, Berkshire is putting up about $12 billion to $13 billion cash, Buffett told CNBC, leaving it ample room for another major transaction.

Berkshire Hathaway already has a variety of food assets, including the Dairy Queen ice cream chain, chocolatier See’s Candies and the food distributor McLane. Buffett, famed for a love of cheeseburgers, joked he was well acquainted with Heinz’s products already and that this was “my kind of deal.”

It does represent an unusual teaming of Berkshire with private equity, though; historically, Buffett’s purchases have been outright his own. He and 3G founder Jorge Paulo Lemann have known each other for years, and Buffett said Lemann approached him with the Heinz idea in December.

One Berkshire investor said he had mixed feelings about the deal because of the limited growth prospects domestically.

“We’re a little hesitant on the staple companies because they don’t have any leverage in the United States,” said Bill Smead, chief investment officer of Smead Capital Management in Seattle. But at the same time, he said, Buffett was likely willing to accept a bond-like steady return even if it was not necessarily a “home run.”

For 3G, a little-known firm with Brazilian roots, the purchase is something of a natural complement to its investment in fast-food chain Burger King, which it acquired in late 2010 and in which it still holds a major stake.

Lemann, a globe-trotting financier with Swiss roots, made his money in banking and gained notoriety for helping to pull together the deals that ultimately formed the beer brewing giant AB InBev.

3G’s Alex Behring runs the fund out of New York. He appeared at a Pittsburgh news conference on Thursday with Heinz management to discuss the deal - and to reassure anxious local crowds that the company will remain based there and will continue to support local philanthropy.

But at the same time, Behring said it was too soon to talk about cost cuts at the company. Unlike Berkshire, which is a hands-off operator, 3G is known for aggressively controlling costs at its operations.

Also to be determined is whether CEO Bill Johnson would stay on. Only the fifth chairman in the company’s history, Johnson is widely credited with Heinz’s recent strong growth.

“I am way too young to retire,” he told the news conference, adding that discussions had not yet started with 3G over the details of Heinz’s future management.

The company, known for its iconic ketchup bottles, Heinz 57 sauces as well as other brands including Ore-Ida frozen potatoes, has increased net sales for the last eight fiscal years in a row.

Heinz said the transaction would be financed with cash from Berkshire and 3G, debt rollover and debt financing from J.P. Morgan and Wells Fargo. Buffett told CNBC that Berkshire and 3G would be equal equity partners.